Quote:I have a cousin who always buys those things, and gives the free ones away as Christmas Presents.


Last year they got my dad one of those expandable hoses. It broke on the first try. I went online to read reviews -- there are some good brands out there that offer the same thing. But the brand my dad got had terrible reviews. He now uses it to tie his trash down when he takes trash to the dump. Reading reviews is usually a good idea, especially from a site like Amazon.


I remember they got us one of those RabbitTV's that is supposed to let you watch T.V. shows on your computer. Before putting it on our computer, I did some research... turns out after the first year, you have to pay a $10.00 annual fee for it, and it doesn't really give you access to anything, it just indexes the already free content on the web.


A lot of those T.V. deals are good ideas that don't work as well as you would like them to. Someone gets the idea, figures they can make money off of it, and makes as many as they can, and sells them two at a time. Sometimes someone else does take that idea though, and actually makes it work. They put more time and effort into it, and make a well designed product. Which is why reading the reviews is important.


Then you have your outright scams that hide costs, or computer products that hurt your computer if you cancel the service. In the age of the internet, As Seen On TV should be "As Reviewed on the Internet"